lake fausse pointe state park & st. martinville, louisiana

extremely glad to not be in an alligator's stomach right now.

i was all excited that i decided to take a nature detour to this very out of the way state park (in louisiana). was feeling very brave and decided i have done everything else by myself, why not hiking?!  so unfortunately, i never saw this sign until after i believe i encountered an alligator.  i thought i saw an alligator several times, but it turned out to always be logs.  then i said, "hmmmm....what an oddly shaped log...."and i think it was an alligator's SNOUT!!!!!!!!  one of the trails i was on went super close to the  swamp in several spots and the snout was in one of them.  but it was sticking up straight instead of w/the eyes and the top sticking out so i am really not sure.  and i was NOT sticking around to find out.

i spent several minutes walking super fast and thinking "do they run out of the water?" "do they smell my fear if i am walking instead of running?"  DUH- either way i am sure i reeked of fear.  "can they climb trees?"  "is it really true that you are supposed to run in a zig-zag pattern to escape?" which is what my drunken junior year at geneseo housemate told me!  she said (or slurred) that it had something to do w/their eye placement and confusing them so they couldn't figure out where you were.  the funny thing is that i said to myself "well, i have always seen clearly posted warnings in other parks for scary animals - mountain lions, bears, etc. - and i never saw one for alligators here so i am sure i am safe.  and then i walked (very quickly) out of the woods and saw the above sign immediately.  oops.  well, geez, don't you think the lady that took my dollar should have said something?!?!?!  and yes, the admission fee was a very reasonable dollar.  maybe they charge that special rate for someone who looks as if they are about to become alligator food.

on a much less scary note, i saw three armadilloes!!!!  wait, does it even have an 'e'??  who knew i would have to use plural armadillo in a sentence?!?!

AND a heron

and an egret i think it is called- a big white bird w/an orange beak.  but i didn't get a good picture of it.
but i did of this HUMMINGBIRD!!!!!!  i loved them so much.  they were whizzing right by my head several times on the way to the feeders.

here is some of the hiking scenery

lots of twisty branches

ANOTHER perfect sunny day in the 80s.

perhaps i should have known something was up when these guys came back saying they saw turtles and alligators.  well, technically the front guy answered the park ranger's question about what they saw with "gators and turtles."  see, apparently it was so common to see alligators that he didn't feel he even had to use the "alli-" part of the word.

the lake was gorgeous

animal poop on the bridge, not as gorgeous

back to the lake so you can erase the poop image from your brain

then i stopped in a very cute town called st. martinville.

 pretty church

the priest's house w/5 flags b/c those were the governments the parish was subject to.

the town is very proud of being the home of evangeline who longfellow wrote a poem about.  oh and oops, the next one is out of order b/c it is a weird description of how the town was founded.  some very odd things occurred in louisiana i have learned.  i kind of forgot about the louisiana purchase.  so they really were sort of a foreign country for a while there.  

the oak is very beautiful.  

 and it is right next to the bayou teche.  i can finally say i have been down on the bayou.  well, maybe down next to the bayou?

and there is longfellow.  right next to the oak he sits.

no photos of where i stayed b/c it was a really dirty microtel.  UGH!!!  now i am starting to feel itchy.  again!  i can't talk about it.  not scrimping on lodging again!!!  so i might be home earlier than i thought....   but the front desk lady rhonda was super nice.  i am sure it wasn't her fault the room was disgusting and hadn't seen a vacuum since the place was built.  and i wish her sons who are in the military all the best.  and i thank her for steering me right w/the cajun food.  first time eating it.  very strange, but good.  and the girl who served it to me was so cute!  she is having her official NCAA visit to columbia this weekend!  she is a really good middle distance track runner.  very strange how i have talked more to strangers in the last week than i did in the prior 3 years!!!!  travelling alone is interesting that way.

though i can't recommend travelling alone wholeheartedly for reasons like you might be too scared to get out of the car in a hardscrabble mississippi town in the pitch dark by yourself where there are no street lights anywhere near the bar even though you may be about to hear the best live blues you have ever heard and will ever hear.  and THAT is a story for another entry.

plantation country day 2

i am AGAIN staying on a PLANTATION!!!!!  can't quite believe i am saying this, but swore i would be honest about my travels in this blog.  whether it was embarassing or not.  this place is UNBELIEVABLE.  i am so happy.  i haven't had a knot in my back or neck for 2 days now.  i feel like a new person.

so this is nottoway, where i am staying.  in white castle, louisiana. 

and that is the front view.  

 if any of you care to look at a map, you would notice that i have travelled only about 50 miles in 2 days!!!!  at this rate, i will need until december to get back home.  

i am having such a romantic time.  oh, i almost forgot.  i am TOTALLY BY MYSELF!!!!!  i can't even believe how wasted these romantic settings are!!!!!!  i really need a boyfriend.  REALLY.  this place actually has romantic ballads piped outside all day long!!!  not even kidding.  the last few songs i heard before dinner were all frank sinatra.  and it is a really decent sounding system - not tinny and fairly soft - so it actually sounds like you are overhearing live music from a distance.  and right now i am all by my lonesome in a super comfy king sized bed w/lots of pillows listening to fantastic jazz on the radio and admiring this gorgeous chandelier's dim light while able to gaze out the window and see a lit-up majestic oak tree.  AND fountain.  and just to top it off, there was a fantastic sunset again tonight.  which i watched while having an out of this world dinner in a fancy restaurant right here in the lower floor of the plantation house while looking out floor to ceiling glass in a curved enclosed porch while also overlooking the same lit up majestic oak that is outside my room window and sipping some delicious cabernet.  *SIGH*

the strawberry spinach salad was the best salad i have ever had.  

here are some views of my room.  

 fireplace

 super fancy bathroom w/super fancy shampoo

 romantic chandelier

 giant comfy bed.  big enough for 2.  or 3, for that matter.

 oh, and here is me looking sort of cute for dinner.

and full length view in cool antique wardrobe mirror.  even wore heels.  

my room is on second floor-boys'wing.  too bad no boy.

this is right in front of my room.

my porch.

view from my porch.  

continuation of oak alley plantation

i am doing 2 posts tonight b/c i can't possibly skip the trees at oak alley.

 this is one of the "baby oaks".  only 150 years old as opposed to the 300 year old front ones!  these were saplings planted from the older ones.

 giant mansion, right?  wait until you see it dwarfed by the 28 300-year-old oaks.

 these are the older ones.

look at that!!!!  see the TEENY looking mansion!?!?!  (this is the other side of the house.)

 sorry if you are getting bored.  they are just so cool.  this is view from upper level.  someone planted 14 on ea. side in the very early 1700s.  they stretch from the house to the mississippi river.  which you can't see anymore b/c at some point levees were built that block the view of the water.  the distance from the house to the road (where the trees end) is 1/4 of a mile.

oh, speaking of mileage, i DID run this morning.  maybe not at 7 a.m. but maybe by about 8:15.  about 2.5 i think.  unless i was going wicked slow.

 2 1920s model As that are in the garage.

me for scale.

they have nice plantings around.  and they decorate w/these giant old vats that used to be for heating and stirring the sugar cane.


sorry i am jumping all around but now i am going back to nottoway.
these photos are from the guided tour.  our guide was a woman who has been coming to the house since the 40s b/c her mother was friends w/the prior owner.  now it is owned by a rich guy from australia who just visits.  you can actually stay in the main part of the house.  or if your budget is that of a public defender, you stay in the boys' wing.  and are still ecstatic.

 just to brag - see how i caught the outdoor pillars in that window reflection?!?!?!  the style of this place is italian ???? and greek revival.  (the oak place was french colonial and greek revival.)  i'm amazed i remember that.

family members (descendants) moved the graves of a bunch of the original owner's family to the grounds in 2003 b/c they were in a poorly kept cemetary elsewhere.

my plan for tomorrow is....

then on to cajun country.

OH and i have basically changed around my entire trip plan.  took more time in louisiana already than i thought i would, so doing more time in mississippi and alabama and then probably tennessee and then home.  unless i can squeeze in seaside, florida on tara and vikram's recommendation.  saving the east coast for next fall when i go to north carolina for amanda's wedding.

hoping that someone is so envious of my amazing travels and amazing ability to pick fantastic beautiful and relaxing places that they are right now scouring the internet for tickets to birmingham to meet me....

louisiana plantation country

sorry for the few skipped days.  i will do the new orleans entries later.  after i start to remember more of it (JOKING - only had more than 2 drinks ONE of the nights) and after i get kim's awesome pictures that she will email me.  i have some great stories.  although i learned that some of what happens in new orleans stays in new orleans.

right now i am STAYING on a PLANTATION!!!!!!!!!!  in vacherie, louisiana just steps from the south bank of the mississippi river.  though i have some obvious philosophical and moral problems w/this, man is it beautiful.  it is called oak alley plantation and i will never be able to do justice to these oaks w/my nikon d40.  i will get someone to take my photo under one tomorrow, but i still don't think you will be able to capture the grandeur.  they are stunning.  i am sure they have a website, so check it out.  a very talented professional photographer did a book on it - the book is sitting here on my coffee table in my SITTING ROOM!  no joke.

but before you think i broke the bank, i didn't.  especially since my new best friend raven gave me a discount b/c she felt bad that we had to do a lot of driving around on a golf cart since she forgot the key to one cottage and another cottage's door was stuck.  she is awesome.  her best tips so far were sending me to the piggly wiggly b/c restaurants are far and my room has a microwave and fridge and all sorts of glass dishes, warning me about the sugar cane harvesters who drive really bad w/the big equipment so you get out of their way fast so they don't break your windshield like they did hers (more than once), and telling me to ask for a beignet instead of a biscuit at breakfast tomorrow.

i am so excited i can finally say i shopped at a piggly wiggly!!!!  wish so bad we had one at home.  how much fun to say "i am going to the piggly wiggly" instead of "i'm going to wegman's."  i would constantly be saying "i have to go to the piggly wiggly after work."  "does anyone need anything from the piggly wiggly?"  "excuse me, did you buy that frozen dinner at the piggly wiggly?"  i would be giving directions like this "you turn left 19 blocks after the piggly wiggly."  i wish i got a more straight on shot of the sign!  but people were on their way in, and i felt stupid getting out of the car w/my giant camera.  the people in there were so friendly!  i got a frozen stouffer's lasagna and forgot to see about forks at the plantation, so as i was checking out i asked about forks.  i was just going to go back in and check out again, but the next thing i knew a worker was bringing me a box of forks, knives and spoons and another worker was asking me if i was visiting from somewhere else.  i think asking about "cold pop" might have tipped them off???  anyway, southern friendliness is not just a myth.  y'all.

oh, so breakfast is included.  like big sitdown breakfast in what looks like a restored barn on the grounds.  i mean southern breakfast w/eggs, meat and a beignet thanks to my tip from raven.  and i have a tempurpedic bed.  going to bed early to fully enjoy that.  and truly start my book girl w/the dragon tattoo which i have only read 4 pages of so far b/c i have been so busy.  and so i can get up early and run.  dennis and ken, you convinced me of it by saying it will be cool to say i ran in every state.  which i already did NOT.   only georgia so far.  think i am still sweating a little from that one.  i can't pass running around a plantation and the banks of the mississippi.  and STOP laughing all of you who cannot picture me getting up early!  it's only 8:36 right now.  and all i have to do is finish this and brush my teeth.  and get my running clothes out.  i will also be up early b/c the light will be awesome for photos.  the weather has been perfect and hoping it is again tomorrow.  there was a gorgeous sunset tonight.

 i am in 1/2 of a cottage at the back of the grounds.

isn't it cute?
and here is the "big house."

shoot - it was kinda dark when i took that.  more after i take the tour tomorrow.
here is the entrance to the plantation.

as i was driving through plantation country, i was amazed at how far back the properties go.  you could see flat, unspoiled land for quite a distance.  (this photo is a pretty good example.)  the mystery giant stalks everywhere that i couldn't figure out turned out to be sugar cane.  which was just harvested from the plantation where i am staying 2 days ago.

i truly cannot stress the importance of mapping w/a good old fashioned map instead of relying on gps.  which i ALMOST threw into the muddy mississippi b/c it was sending me on this RIDICULOUS route when it could have sent me on the great river road that winds along the mississippi and goes by all sorts of amazing sites (more later).  AND the ridiculous route was out of the way!!!  but it was a 2 lane on ea. side highway instead of a 2 lane road that has parts where the speed limit is 35.  so lucky for me i insist on looking at the map first and knew ms. gps was being stupid.

this is one of the views from my cottage.

and another.

earlier in the day i took a guided tour of a creole plantation just down the road from this one called the laura plantation.

creole houses have lots of doors in the front.  

 love the porches!

can't get enough of these majestic trees.

slave quarters.  they were 16x16 for an entire family!

i was dying to ask why they didn't have as meticulously researched stories to give about the slaves as they did about the plantation owners but i did think better of it.  but really, i feel like sending an anonymous letter that it is incredibly insulting to kind of gloss over the real issues by just showing the slave quarters at the end and not even mentioning who is in some of the photos of the slaves on the walls.  i am sure a lot of that information could be researched just like the owner family history.  this is another reason i wish someone was travelling w/me - back-up!

don't know who these people were.  but i know what laura looks like.  ugh.

they grow several varieties of bananas there.  no joke.

gorgeous doors.
so, i didn't even get to my photos of the inside but not going to.  sorry.  my book is beckoning.  and this is super time consuming.  and does anyone know if it is possible for me to print these easily b/c i can't keep up w/a written journal AND a blog.
who knew i would be so wild about plantation country????  kind of embarassing.  and un-p.c. for sure.